What Is eLearning?: A 101 Guide on Everything You Need to Know About eLearning

There’s no denying that technology has had a significant impact on every aspect of our lives, be that personal or professional. When it comes to professional life, many companies have even adjusted their workplace, workload, and other important processes to technological advances so that they can get the most out of it. Employee training is one of them. Companies’ management has found a golden opportunity to leverage the benefits of technology while also thinking about their employees and what is more convenient. 

What Is eLearning?

When you think of eLearning, what comes to mind? Surely, reading an interesting article, taking quizzes, and watching educational videos like the ones provided by the TED Talk are all considered to be a form of online learning. In other words, eLearning refers to any kind of training one gets in the online platform. 

While above we touched upon the eLearning and what it entails briefly, we’re going to give a formal definition of eLearning. There are numerous definitions of this concept; however, we’re going to choose the one that encompasses it the best way. In their book ‘’E-learning and The Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning”, Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer, two highly acclaimed university professors, define eLearning as ‘’instructions delivered through digital devices with the intent of supporting learning’’.

How Can You Deliver eLearning?

Now that we got the eLearning definition out of the way and got you more familiar with the concept, we can get more in-depth on this topic and earn more about how you can implement eLearning in your organization. 

LMS

Learning management systems or LMSs are online software used to develop, deliver, and track training for different organizations and purposes. An LMS indeed changed the way training is delivered. While the traditional setting of training would be a classroom with an instructor giving a lecture in front of their students, the LMS offers almost all the benefits of the traditional way of training. The only exception is the setting. 

There are many LMSs available for you to choose from—cloud-based, open-source, installation-based, and commercial. The cloud-based LMSs are the most used type as it makes it easier and quicker for people to create courses, students can register without any hassle, and keep an accurate track of the learning progress. Ultimately, the kind you choose will depend on the training needs and requirements. 

xAPI

In the latest years, xAPI has turned into the new standard for delivering online training. While it’s considered the understudy of the SCORM, it has definitely redefined the practices of tracking learning experiences. However, despite the similarities, xAPI and SCORM have a core difference, the content they keep track of. SCORM is known to be able to record online learning, whereas xAPI tracks almost any activity.   

SCORM

SCORM that stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model, is all about creating and developing learning materials that can be shared in many different systems. This material is created once and then used in numerous systems without the need to be modified. Put simply, SCORM is a set of methods and techniques of creating and using content and creating a standard in which the eLearning training courses are developed. To utilize SCORM, you need to make sure that you have a SCORM-supporting LMS.

Benefits of eLearning for Businesses

Nowadays, many companies, regardless of whether they are small startups or large enterprises, have turned to eLearning to train the staff, upgrade their qualifications, prepare them for new positions and manage the development of their employees, in general. Let’s look at some of the benefits of eLearning for businesses and what makes it worth investing in. 

It saves money

These two are some of the most significant benefits that eLearning can bring. While traditional training can be expensive due to many factors like printing training materials, in-site instructors, and other expenses that could come up, eLearning removes the organization’s need to pay for this stuff as it will entirely be online. If so happens that any module needs changes, you can easily do so via the help of LMS without needing to print and spread the updated materials. 

It saves time  

We are all aware of how precious time is in the work environment. With that being said, both startups and enterprises are always on the lookout for ways to save as much as possible and spend it more effectively. The updates and changes that need to be made are implemented quite easily to your LMS. This certainly will save the management quite much time. Also, the management gets to automate several manual tasks, becoming, in this way, more efficient.

When it comes to saving time, eLearning benefits the staff as they get to access the materials whenever they need to and won’t have the need to depend on a scheduled training.   

Improves performance and productivity

Another significant benefit of using eLearning is the increase in productivity and performance levels. The trainees will find it easier to attend and complete their training. All this will surely result positively in productivity. 

Reduces your company’s environmental impact

Switching to eLearning certainly has many financial benefits. But not only that, choosing to deliver training in the online platform will also be good for the environment. You will be one less factor that contributes to environmental pollution, you’ll be producing fewer carbon emissions, and you’ll be spending way less energy than you did when you did your training on-site. 

Increases employee retention

eLearning gives everyone on the staff an equal opportunity to enhance their skills and abilities. Since it is quite easily accessible to everyone and it offers standardized training, eLearning can impact employee retention. 

Also, almost every company has a part of the staff that is working from home. With the training being on-site, they couldn’t join it. This could lead to unsatisfied employees, who then would have other consequences. However, with eLearning, this wouldn’t be happening. Every employee would have the opportunity to join in and what’s best they can participate on their own time. If this won’t positively affect employee retention, we don’t know what will.  

Makes it easy to track progress

You, as management, want to make sure that you’re delivering the best possible training to your staff. However, you couldn’t know if the course you provided is beneficial to your team at all or even what their needs are. There could be a chance that your staff is already familiar with the topic or that the course is more advanced than they can handle at this point of their career. That’s why with eLearning, this won’t be an issue as you can track your staff’s progression over time.  

All in all, eLearning has revolutionized employee training. With the benefits it brings to both the employers and employees, we shouldn’t be surprised that many companies are catching on and offering their training entirely online. How about you? Will you, too, be joining the eLearning club? Let us know in the comments below.